Take a virtual field trip to explore world class museums and online art institute for free! Avoid budget restrictions and field trip limitations by joining this Webby award winning site. Investigate the world of art history accompanied by two professors at the Fashion Institute of Technology, Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker. Smarthistory started as a a blog featuring free audio guides, podcasts, and videos. Later it became an interactive exploration of eras, styles, and artists. Smarthistory has recently merged with KahnAcademy utilizing the same concept: that high quality education should be free and available to all. Included in each video are informational resources to give extra information. Many universities use Smarthistory as a required part of their curriculum.

In the Classroom

A must for any art classroom, Smarthistory adds an extra dimension and deeper understanding to any history, social studies, or cultural studies classroom. Use in writing workshops to provide insights to art and culture and to into thoughts and feelings. Study written works alongside the art of past time periods. Tempt students into the amazing world of art history by watching the new videos. Bring unlimited, world-class resources to each class. All of the videos are easily adaptable to an interactive whiteboard or projector. Debate clubs can study techniques and develop their own styles of debate. Gifted classes will devour this website. Provide this link on your class website to offer students extra challenge and exploration.

Public Domain Pictures is a database of pictures allowed to be used in any way that you see fit. You can also upload pictures to share. The only time to worry about a model or property release is if you choose to use an image for commercial use. Most images are free. Enjoy some time browsing pictures. Please note that a log-in (with an email address) is required to upload your own pictures. You do not need an account to download a picture for free. Be sure not to click on the "Premium Download" button, as this download is for a fee (even with the "free" photos). Scroll down a bit and click on "download picture" to download for free.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Share this website on your class web page so that students have easy and legal access to pictures for their projects and presentations. Of course, you will still require proper image credits! Be sure to offer clear instructions about how to download FOR FREE. In an art or photography class, have students post their work to get exposure and recognition for their great images. Read tips for safely managing email registrations here.

This interactive music video will bring in a street view of any address you enter. The pop group, Arcade Fire, worked with Google to develop this video for its song "We Used To Wait." The video is best viewed in Chrome, but can also be viewed in Safari, and most of it on Internet Explorer. It uses Google Maps and Google Street View to bring the address you entered directly into the movie. You don't have to enter an exact address for the interaction to happen. You can put in a city, state, and country and get some very good results. A warning will appear that the information isn't complete, but click on "continue anyway" to see the results. Not only is this a sentimental trip down memory lane for you, but there are a myriad of ways to use this video with your students. Note: the video actually launches in multiple smaller windows, so allow all of them to montage on your screen! The final "postcard" that prompts you to write to your younger self uses the same artistic font as the title page. Take a screen shot of it to preserve what your message.

In the Classroom

World history, and world culture teachers could use this video by putting in a city and country where you know there are historical buildings from the time period you are studying. Science and math teachers could put in cities and countries for the origins of famous scientists or mathematicians or locations of major environmental events. And, of course, world language and geography teachers can input any city and country you are studying.

Any student, but especially ESL/ELL students, will discover forgotten memories after putting in an address and watching the film. Students who have always lived in the same home may want to put in the address of a favorite relative or vacation spot. At the end there is a prompt to write a postcard; however, it cannot be mailed to anyone in particular. So, have students jot memories ignited by the video on paper or in an open word processing document. Have them use one of the memories as a prompt for a memoir. Have students create blogs to record their memoir. If you are beginning the process of integrating technology, have students create blogs sharing their learning and understanding using Loose Leaves, reviewed here. This blog creator requires no registration.

During Poetry Month or a poetry unit, talk about the song lyrics as poetry, then have students write their own poems and read them along with their personal location video (with sound muted). Make poetry a personal performance piece!

Have you ever wanted to show your students the setting of a novel you are reading as a class? Imagine using the setting for Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliet and putting in the street, city, and zipcode for Hyde Park and the University of Chicago. Powerful! At the end of the book there is a chase scene, and the students will really be able to visualize this section of the book. You might want to show the setting at the beginning and ask the students to write about why the person is running. After reading the novel, students could select different music to fit their impression of the book. Just mute the music in the video and allow their selection to play. Have students explain why they felt their choice fit that part of the novel better. Have students do this and vote on the musical selection they think fits best by using a tool such as Votesy, reviewed here.

This video could also be used as a prompt for a creative writing. Ask the students to listen carefully to the words in the music and connect the runner with the words, and explain why the figure is running? What might the figure be running from? Toward? Or, students could create a poem for the video, and even put the poem to music, or use the music from a favorite song for their poem. This site invites creativity and multimedia responses.

This interdisciplinary lesson uses writing and art as a way to build a sense of community both within and outside the school. Students write and share across grade levels, and they include images and/or drawings as additional means of expression. Finally, the resulting works are collected and added to a real or virtual library. This lesson plan was one of the winners in a lesson plan contest sponsored by TeachersFirst in 2002. TeachersFirst editors have since added technology options where appropriate.

Save hundreds of dollars spicing up your curriculum with virtual field trips! This site has "field trips" to take, instructions for creating, and resources for other virtual field trip sites. Field trips for; Career, fine arts, foreign language, health and PE, language arts, math, library, media, professional development, science, social studies, and technology are given. There is a plethora of topics - perfect for research and "virtual" travel. The topics are too broad to list all of them, but some include tessellations, dinosaurs, water cycle, medieval times, Civil War, oil painting, and much more! Receive a detailed tutorial for finding instructions on asking permission for field trips, creating virtual field trips, and evaluating the experience. No bus required! At the time of this review, three of the links under "Visit Related Sites" were not working.

In the Classroom

Immerse your students into your studies with a close up in depth look through virtual field trips. Visit places where time, money, and mileage inhibit your dreams for bringing your students into wondrous worlds. Find ways to visit where your class has never gone before. Create a personalized field trip to meet your every need with the detailed tutorials given. Find ways to motivate your most reluctant learners. ESL/ELL learners will appreciate the visit. Reach all types of learners through a class visit. Use field trips as a whole class anticipatory guide, a center activity, a home connection, or even as extra credit. Challenge your gifted students to be guides to their own learning. Make your class go global!

Bring out the inner artist in anyone with this colorful and interactive paint program. Create original designs by choosing settings located underneath the picture image. Sliders control color, saturation, opacity, size, noise, and much more. Create something that you don't like? Click the undo button to get back to the previous image. The site contains a detailed list of tools available to use along with keyboard shortcuts. Save finished images to your local computer using the link on the page.

This site requires Java. A Facebook account is required If you choose to register at the site. Registered users are able to leave comments. Be sure to preview comments before sharing this site with your students. You may want to set some ground rules about where student may and may not go when using this tool.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Have students create and save designs to use as a writing prompt or story starter. Practice art skills by having students re-create images and designs made using the site. Introduce this site on your interactive whiteboard or projector. This is perfect for an art class learning about color, opacity, and more. Have students create visual interpretations of poems or music. Include the images in a class wiki or blog along with a link to the poem or music.

Space.com is your one stop extraterrestrial resource! Featuring current information and articles about all things out of this world, Space.com is a resource full of images, videos, and interactives. Images here are brilliant and beautiful. Articles are professional and meaningful.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Share the videos and activities on your projector or interactive whiteboard. Try using this website as a resource in art class to have students find a picture and recreate it though their own interpretation. Have students in a language arts class choose a photograph and create a story about how it came to be as a creative writing exercise. Have students in science class use it as a research resource for adding great images to their presentations. Or assign a particular article that relates to an astronomy class, have the whole class read it as homework, and then have them post reactions on a class wiki page. Not familiar with wikis? Check out the TeachersFirst Wiki Walk-Through.

Here you will find an online collection of streaming video clips from OPB's Oregon Art Beat television series. In addition, there are 100 lesson plans designed for K-12 teachers to use in the classroom. Each of the lesson plans has related materials such as worksheets and scoring guides to use with the activities. Discover a variety of ways to integrate the Arts across all subject areas with this innovative set of learning resources.

Searching this site is very flexible. You can search by categories (music, drawing and painting, historical and cultural perspectives, dance, architecture, landscape, films, sculpture, and many more) by clicking on the "search video" tab. You can also search by entering a keyword. There is also an advanced search where you can search by topic categories, curriculum categories, as well as keywords.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

This site will help any teacher answer the question, "Why do I have to learn this?" You will also find ways to show connections between the arts and other fields of endeavor. Share the videos on your projector or interactive whiteboard. Here are just a few examples of how you can use the Arts in your academic classes:

In math when studying geometric patterns, you might want to show the video about quilt artist Mary Bywater Cross. She likes to take a traditional pattern, blow it up, figure out where to cut to make the repeat in her geometrical patterns, how to achieve symmetry and balance in her designs, and how to make it all work in the quilt she envisions. Mary is also a quilt historian, so your students will also gain background knowledge about quilts and wool.

In science, view quantum physicist-turned-sculptor, Julian Voss-Andreae's stainless steel sculpture based on the molecular structure of an antibody.

This short animated YouTube clip shares specific copyright issues, focusing on reusing previously developed materials available on the Internet by uploading and presenting them on YouTube. It begins with a written quiz on the right side of the page to assess prior knowledge and also to get viewers thinking about copyright issues. It presents the message that uploading copyrighted material onto YouTube can have serious consequences. It also explores the fact that, in addition to written and broadcast media, performances and other public presentations may also be copyrighted. It explains the concept of Fair Use in easy-to-understand terms and examples. It also points out that you may watch for people who misuse material and report any such items so they will be removed from YouTube. Note that this video is hosted on YouTube. If your district blocks YouTube, the video may not be viewable. You could always view the video at home and bring it to class "on a stick" to share. Use a tool such as KeepVid, reviewed here, to download the video from YouTube.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Use this site on a projector or interactive whiteboard to discuss and informally assess prior knowledge as you start your study of plagiarism on writing projects or copyright in general. Use it in art or music classes when discussing the use of "derivative works" or performance rights on music. Include this site on your class webpage for students and parents to access as a reference. To show what they have learned from this site, challenge students to create an online graphic about copyright to share using Gravit, reviewed here.

This PBS site is a reorganized collection of over 16,000+ public media offerings (including radio and photographs), arranged specifically for preK-12 teachers. You can search by subject and grade level across many subjects. After viewing three offerings, you must join (for free) to continue. Membership includes the option of saving favorites. You can also find correlations to state standards. The site is still in development, so material is being added frequently.

In the Classroom

Find more details and teacher information under "Customization for States and District" to align the offerings here with your state's standards. Check this site for an introduction to a curriculum topic or unit or when looking for support activities to reinforce concepts. Use this site as the starting point for individual or group projects. Share the interactives as a learning center or on your interactive whiteboard or projector. This is one that you want to save in your favorites.

authorSTREAM, an internet based presentation maker that is based on PowerPoint formatting, is easy to use and offers some very useful and unique features. Offering more than the basic PowerPoint creation greatly expands its value. Special features of authorSTREAM include the ability to make public presentations, download presentations as FLV, MP4, AVI, and WMV files, present live to an online audience anywhere in the world, and the ability to create a "channel" or collection of all your online work. With this application, you can add YouTube videos and sound narration directly to your presentations. Of these features, perhaps the two most unique are the ability to download in different formats. Using this, you can create a movie to be played on a television or create a file that can be shared by all of your audience on iTunes, since MP4 is iTunes language! With private presentations -- or even public ones -- you can protect access with a password. Also, this program has an add-on in PowerPoint that allows you to search web content directly from the application. This add-on is also free but does require a Windows machine; even if your Mac has Microsoft PowerPoint, it will not work properly. Talk about a time saver for Windows users!

In the Classroom

Have you been contemplating a "flipped classroom" teaching style where you do the activities and hands-on things during class and the students listen to the information and lectures outside of class? This is a great tool for a flipped classroom or any use of sharable media. You can create your notes and lectures in PowerPoint, adding video clips and narration, download as an MP4, and then share with all of your students through iTunes. This greatly enhances the opportunities for extended thinking and active time in the classroom. More simply, try recording yourself giving an informational presentation, saving it here, and sharing with students via your website or wiki to access from home as a review tool or a catch-up for absentees. Have older students create their own presentations and share with the class and teacher via iTunes. Students who are normally very shy and uncomfortable can feel safe "presenting" in front of the class! High school students can also share links to their best work as part of a digital portfolio or college application. Art students can create online portfolios with narrated artist notes. Student-made book talks can be shared on iTouches in the library/media center. Link to them by QR code! Teachers at any grade level can share back to school night information with parents unable to attend.

Make a series of sketches; then turn them into an animation with one click! Set up an account (free) and create an avatar to practice using the simple drawing tools. Draw "cells" in which the action slowly progresses. Finally, click to see your cells together as animation! Typical basic drawing tools include a brush, a line, curvy lines, rectangle and circle shapes, polygons, paint, spray, colors, and an eraser. You can save and publish final animations. Be certain to preview anything you wish to share with your class. This site does not require Flash, but rather Java. It therefore will work on iOS devices!

In the Classroom

Use this site to draw a quick sketch to show to your class instantly. Introduce this site on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Then have students explore this site independently or in small groups. Use this site as the way to add another dimension to individual or group projects. Encourage your students to use this tool for projects, such as simple animations of the rock cycle or water cycle, cells dividing, etc. Share the various projects on your interactive whiteboard or class wiki by url.

Use MorgueFile for free images for inspiration, reference, and use in creative works. These images are legal for use without concern about copyright. Photographs were 'freely contributed by many artists to be used in creative projects by visitors to the site," though they do request that proper credit be given (see "about"). Enter your search term and refine your search to find images in various categories, size, color, and other options. Click on the image to go to its own page. Save on your computer by clicking Download. Inappropriate images can be reported on this page as well. Create a login to use an organizer to manage photos you have found. Be sure to check out the portfolio tab to view other photos as well as the Classroom tab. Use the Classroom tab to learn about cameras, lenses, and taking better photographs.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Use this site in every subject area where images can convey concepts or students make projects. Find free images easily for use within the classroom. Use images for drag and drop activities on IWB, such as sorting vegetables from fruits, etc. In Art class, have students find images to demonstrate different design concepts such as rhythm, line, etc. Project an intriguing photo on your interactive whiteboard or projector as a writing prompt for a short story (or poem). Use images for practice writing in world languages, by having students describe the scene or tell a story about it. Have students create an annotated image including text boxes and related links using a tool such as Thinglink, reviewed here.

Video versions of several Caldecott and Newbery award winning books are available for download at this site. Files are in RealPlayer format and require the RealPlayer download available here. Once RealPlayer is installed, videos play instantly when choosing the link. (Note: Real PLAyer is a Windows program, so Mac users are out of luck.) Videos range from 6 to 20 minutes in length. Running time is displayed with titles. Titles include popular books used in elementary classroom such as Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters, Paperboy, Stone Soup, and others.

In the Classroom

View videos on your interactive whiteboard or projector after reading stories in class (or as a preview). Use an online tool such as Interactive Two Circle Venn Diagram (reviewed here) to create a visual comparison of the book and the video. Share this link on your class website for students (and parents) to explore at home. School librarians may want to set up a kiosk of selected videos as a book promotion in the library/media center. Art teachers may want to share a video of Caldecott winning illustrations before asking students to illustrate a scene from one of their own favorite books.

This site offers a myriad of memory games, brain games, quizzes, and more. Train your brain to think! Interactives offered in a variety of languages include: Dragger, Counterfeit, The Game you Can't Stop, Masterpieces, Sudoko, Mastermind, Crime Scene, The Image Quiz, Anagramania, Square Words, Speed Read, and Spellice. Many other games are also included. After winning a game, you earn a ticket. The tickets let you enter the bonus room to win a surprise image.

In the Classroom

Offer exciting and fun ways to improve problem solving and creativity in A Game a Day! Challenge your students to go beyond and stretch their thinking in a variety of ways. The gaming format holds high motivation and interest with your students. Arrange contests within your class for increased achievement. Use in gifted and advanced classes. A Game a Day is a great center time activity and also can be used effectively for reward time. Use as examples for gaming formats with your computer classes. Challenge your students to create review activities for concepts and units based on the game formats presented. Preservice teachers can benefit for discovering the wave of the future: education through gaming. Use in your world language classes to increase fluency.

Investigate the art of shadow puppetry through Shadow Light Productions. This is a commercial site featuring performances for school groups, community centers, or various events. Examples of performances with traditional stories appear in written and video format. A commercial venture on this site sells DVDS of actual performances. Begin your study of shadow puppetry at this site. Detailed plans with standards include suggested objectives, strategies, equipment, materials, and resources for audio, video, and texts. These plans answer all your questions on how to use shadow puppetry effectively in your classroom. Examples of lesson plans and student performance give ideas for language arts classes. Some of the images (although appropriate) may appear scary to younger students. So please preview before you share with your class.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Share some of this "puppeteer fun" on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Integrate into your Language Arts classroom to discover theme, plot, characterization, or myths and legends in a new way. Science classes can investigate the use of shadow and sound. Shadow puppetry is an easy way to incorporate several multiple intelligences. Easily differentiated plans for ESL/ELL and Gifted students to capture interest and motivate success. Use as an enrichment cluster, or after-school activity. Be sure to capture all your class creations on video and share on your class web site or blog.

Short stories, biographies, riddles, games and other appealing activities make this an attractive way to introduce students to magazine reading. With both academic and just-for-fun features, the site fills the need students have after Highlights Magazine and other similar publications get too old. Students are using their reading skills as they try to solve riddles, tell jokes, and practice tongue-twisters.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Keep this site in mind to recommend to parents for use during summer vacation. Be sure to list this link on your class website. Take a few moments in class to display the various parts to show the wide range of reading activities (and writing activities, using these articles as models) students can enjoy.

Sqworl is a site for combining multiple links into one single link. Registration is required; however, it is very easy. You create a username and password, add your email and it is done. After registering, a personal homepage is created, this is where the magic can begin! The homepage is where groups will be created to combine url's. Then adding some groups of link begins the process of creating groups. At this point a title is given to the group being created (examples might be Math sites, American History, etc.). The final step is to add a short description. After choosing start, simply copy and paste the url you want to use and add a short description and click finish. Once a group is created, it can be shared through the url shown on the page. Sqworl also has a bookmarklet that can be added to the browser toolbar making it easier to add items to your groups without having to open the homepage. There is also a mobile app for iPhone.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

In the classroom use this site to combine url's of online class projects into one group. Create a group of resources for students or parents for different subjects and share the url through your classroom website or newsletter. Create a group with videos relating to classroom content. Create a classroom account and let students add resources they have found to groups to share with others. Show students how to follow other groups on Sqworl and share resources by creating their own groups. Share this site with others in your building or district as an easy way to save and share online resources.

This site offers a complete lesson plan to use with students prior to beginning a first research project. The lesson takes students through the process of analyzing book titles to determine ones that would be helpful in their research. It then builds on class discussion to enable students to make informed decisions on appropriate research material. One especially useful part of the lesson is the Hints About Print interactive link included in the lesson plan. This would be a wonderful site to use on your interactive whiteboard to lead the class through basics of choosing materials for research. Other useful items on the site are the nonfiction book reviews and nonfiction book evaluation forms that are available in pdf form for easy classroom use. Find all resources and print material by choosing the Resources and Preparation tab near the top of the page.

In the Classroom

View the Hints About Print interactive with your class on your interactive whiteboard (or projector) to demonstrate different concepts on choosing appropriate resources for research. If you don't have an interactive whiteboard, create a link on your classroom computers for students to view as a center. This site is perfect to use with older students who may have already done research projects as a review for choosing materials. ESL and Special Education teachers may want to use materials included in this lesson as an aid for students who have been assigned research projects.

Stich.it is a new link-shortening service that lets you combine several links into one and then plays them like a slideshow. View examples shown on the site. Some have descriptive text found at the top of each slide and written by the user. Follow the helpful information along the side for using Stich.

In the Classroom

Use Stich.it for Internet scavenger hunts. Create a Stich with all the links needed to complete a project or for the entire unit. Students can create a Stich that showcases the websites that they used to complete an assignment or project. Use this with even the youngest students by sharing a Stich on your class website for students and parents to explore. Make a Stich of sites to learn to count, a stich for sites to learn the branches of government, a stich of sites to learn about tough biology concepts, a stich of sites to practice trigonometry, and pretty much anything else you can imagine!